Sent February 19, 2004:
Hello!
It has been a while since I last kept in touch, so I wanted to send an update. I am currently in Miami, FL where my team has been for the past four weeks assisting low-income families file their 2003 federal tax returns. In addition to doing taxes, my team has also been volunteering at the Miami Children's Hospital three nights a week as bedside buddies, which involves pushing carts of toys and games from room to room and playing with kids who are unable to leave their beds.
Tax work here has been slow, mostly because most people hadn't received their W-2 forms until recently. The team, divided into pairs, works at five different locations throughout the city during the week and on Saturdays. Having never filed a single tax return of my own, helping someone else with theirs is a bit daunting. You're never sure if you could've gotten someone a bigger refund or if you even did the return correctly. Having the taxpayer sign a release form that "remises, releases, acquits, satisfies, waives, indemnifies, holds harmless, exonerates and forever discharges" us from "any and all claims, demands, accounts, sums of money, torts, trespasses, expenses, ...which may have as a result of personal injury or damage to or loss of property while receiving" our tax services is only a slight relief in the sense that I know I can't be sued for screwing up, but it still wouldn't alleviate the guilt. Aside from that, what makes this experience worth it is in seeing the lit up faces of taxpayers when they're told that they will be receiving a much needed four or five thousand dollar refund.
During the day when we're not providing tax assistance, which is often, we pass the time by contemplating our navels or planning our life after Americorps. I've done much of both, and as of right now, I'm keeping all options open about where I'll be or what I'll be doing after July 1st. In other words, I don't have a job and need one.
My team leaves Miami this Saturday to return to Charleston for a few days before we begin our next project next week. We have been assigned to High Point, North Carolina for an education project. We will be tutoring at four elementary schools during the day and running an after school program at a local Boys and Girls Club which is also where we'll be staying.
In other news, I'm delighted to report that I managed to take some days off from Americorps to go to Hawaii for the Kaimana Klassik XVII Ultimate Frisbee tournament this past weekend. It was wonderful seeing Whiptail alums Merritt, Cara, Lin, Marta, Andra, and Brynne, and in Hawaii no less! We played ultimate against a gorgeous backdrop of green mountains and camped by a beach of white sands and clear blue water. I had a terrific time. All I have left to say about Whiptail reunions is that I like it, I love it, and I want more of it!
Blogger's note: After four years since the last non-Millyfest Whiptail reunion, the alums are once again discussing the prospect of forming an alum team for a tournament in 2009. Finally!
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
My Life Circa 2003 - Part 2
Sent November 18, 2003:
Hello all,
I'm back in Charleston, having returned from my project at the Mississippi State Hospital. The project went really well and we accomplished everything that we had set out to do. Over the course of three weeks, my team searched for and excavated over 3,500 headstones that were buried beneath inches (sometimes over a foot) of dirt and grass, and remodeled the outdoor chapel used for funeral services at the cemetery. We filled in sunken graves with new dirt, realigned any headstones that had gone astray, and raked and cleared off unearthed dirt and dead brush around the headstones. For the chapel, we re-shingled the roof, removed and installed new railings, removed old siding and nailed in new siding, and caulked and primed everything for painting.
Blogger's note: While digging, favorite songs to listen to included: Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust," U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," and Dave Matthew's "Grave Digger" (not to be confused with Kanye's "Gold Digger"). It's strange to think that less than five years ago, I was still toting around a clunky portable CD player and buying CDs at a music store.
We also learned about the hospital and the different types of treatments it provides for its psychiatric patients. Some of my teammates shadowed staff in the forensics and chemical dependency units, and all of us attended sessions on music and art therapy. We also visited the hospital museum which is located in the original building where treatments such as electric shock and hydrotherapy were given to the patients.
We learned that a prominent artist named Walter Anderson whose art exhibit is currently at the Mississippi Museum of Art was once a patient at MSH (they seemed quite proud of that fact). The woman who gave us a tour of the campus was also proud to tell us that several movies have been filmed at campus including "A Time to Kill" (starring Matthew McConaughey, Sandra Bullock, and Morgan Freeman).
Blogger's note: According to Wikipedia, Walter Anderson often plotted elaborate escapes from the various mental hospitals at which he was a patient. "During one of several escapes from the Mississippi State Hospital, he lowered himself on bedsheets from a second-story window, leaving the brick walls festooned with drawings of birds in flight, done in soap."
While we didn't have much opportunity to work with living patients, we did interact with a few patients in the dining hall where we ate our meals. One patient took a particular liking to our group and he often spoke to us during lunch. I didn't know that he was a patient at first because he often ate in the dining hall designated for hospital employees.
Blogger's note: I'll admit it, I thought this dude was sketchy from the very beginning. But it being my first foray into the Deep South, I tried to keep an open mind. Still, it was difficult for me not to take offense when he said, "No, where are you really from?" after I had replied, "New York," the first time he asked the question. I also tried not to feel uncomfortable by his open disdain of the "Northern aggression" (in referring to the Civil War). What probably should have tipped us off was his conviction of the existence of buried treasure on the hospital grounds.
After our second interaction with him, I finally noticed the green bracelet on his wrist. The color green meant that the patient had reached the highest level of privileges, allowing him to walk around campus without supervision. This e-mail would get too long if I went on to talk about all the kinds of advice he tried to give the women on our team.
Blogger's note: One of the relationship tips he dispensed was how to gauge a potential suitor's worthiness. We should only marry a man if he expresses concern for our spiritual well-being, and to find out if he does, we must ask him, "Do you care about my spiritual well-being?" So readers, don't forget to include that little criteria in your quest for true love.
The city of Jackson does not offer much for its tourists. Save a few museums and the governor's mansion, there wasn't a whole lot to see or do downtown. So instead of hanging out in Jackson on the weekends, we took off for Vicksburg one weekend for a driving tour of a civil war park consisting of monuments dedicated to all the battalions that fought in the war. The 16-mile tour only reminded us of our cemetery back at MSH so we quickly found a short cut out of the park and went exploring elsewhere. We spent the second weekend in New Orleans and stayed at a teammate's house in Slidell. After a raucous night of partying on Bourbon Street on Saturday, we did an independent service project at a local convenant house the next day, washing windows and sanding down railings to prepare for a new coat of paint.
On our way back to Charleston at the end of last week, we made a stop in Atlanta, GA for half a day. I visited the High Folk Art and Photography gallery for a photo exhibit of Aperture at 50: Past Forward. I also took a CNN studio tour at their headquarters which, quite frankly, sucked.
Blogger's note: In the original e-mail, I had written a more detailed description of the CNN tour but after reading it now, I decided that "sucked" would suffice.
Tomorrow, we'll begin our second project at Mepkin Abbey in Moncks Corner, SC, home to Trappist monks. The project is short - only 6 working days. We'll be helping out in their library and botanical garden. I hear the abbey is beautiful and am excited to take a break from digging.
Blogger's note: Mepkin Abbey, as recently as 2007, stirred some controversy when PETA released a video showing the abbey's egg farming operations that involved de-beaking hens and forced molting practices.
And more news! We recently were told about our third project, which is to begin right after Thanksgiving weekend and to continue after our winter break until near the end of February. My team will be heading down to Miami, Florida to help the Hispanic and Creole communities of the city file their taxes. For about two weeks (Dec. 1-12) we will receive training on how exactly to do someone's taxes (good practical skill to learn for the future) and then when we come back after winter break, we'll begin the actual work. We'll be living in a hotel (we're going to be so spoiled!) and my team will be working in pairs in different communities/neighborhoods in the city.
I want to start learning some Spanish, so if any of you have recommendations for specific teach-yourself-Spanish books/CDs please let me know, or if you want to email me some essential Spanish vocab/phrases, feel free to do so.
Blogger's note: I purchased one of those teach-yourself-Spanish book and CD sets only to learn that the community to which I was assigned (Model City, aka Liberty City) was predominantly African American. The only Spanish I've picked up between 2003 and now was when my family took a vacation to Mexico in 2004 and I learned to say, "Por favor, donde esta el bano? Gracias!" ("Please, where is the bathroom? Thank you!")
Stayed tuned for Part 3.
Hello all,
I'm back in Charleston, having returned from my project at the Mississippi State Hospital. The project went really well and we accomplished everything that we had set out to do. Over the course of three weeks, my team searched for and excavated over 3,500 headstones that were buried beneath inches (sometimes over a foot) of dirt and grass, and remodeled the outdoor chapel used for funeral services at the cemetery. We filled in sunken graves with new dirt, realigned any headstones that had gone astray, and raked and cleared off unearthed dirt and dead brush around the headstones. For the chapel, we re-shingled the roof, removed and installed new railings, removed old siding and nailed in new siding, and caulked and primed everything for painting.
Blogger's note: While digging, favorite songs to listen to included: Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust," U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," and Dave Matthew's "Grave Digger" (not to be confused with Kanye's "Gold Digger"). It's strange to think that less than five years ago, I was still toting around a clunky portable CD player and buying CDs at a music store.
We also learned about the hospital and the different types of treatments it provides for its psychiatric patients. Some of my teammates shadowed staff in the forensics and chemical dependency units, and all of us attended sessions on music and art therapy. We also visited the hospital museum which is located in the original building where treatments such as electric shock and hydrotherapy were given to the patients.
We learned that a prominent artist named Walter Anderson whose art exhibit is currently at the Mississippi Museum of Art was once a patient at MSH (they seemed quite proud of that fact). The woman who gave us a tour of the campus was also proud to tell us that several movies have been filmed at campus including "A Time to Kill" (starring Matthew McConaughey, Sandra Bullock, and Morgan Freeman).
Blogger's note: According to Wikipedia, Walter Anderson often plotted elaborate escapes from the various mental hospitals at which he was a patient. "During one of several escapes from the Mississippi State Hospital, he lowered himself on bedsheets from a second-story window, leaving the brick walls festooned with drawings of birds in flight, done in soap."
While we didn't have much opportunity to work with living patients, we did interact with a few patients in the dining hall where we ate our meals. One patient took a particular liking to our group and he often spoke to us during lunch. I didn't know that he was a patient at first because he often ate in the dining hall designated for hospital employees.
Blogger's note: I'll admit it, I thought this dude was sketchy from the very beginning. But it being my first foray into the Deep South, I tried to keep an open mind. Still, it was difficult for me not to take offense when he said, "No, where are you really from?" after I had replied, "New York," the first time he asked the question. I also tried not to feel uncomfortable by his open disdain of the "Northern aggression" (in referring to the Civil War). What probably should have tipped us off was his conviction of the existence of buried treasure on the hospital grounds.
After our second interaction with him, I finally noticed the green bracelet on his wrist. The color green meant that the patient had reached the highest level of privileges, allowing him to walk around campus without supervision. This e-mail would get too long if I went on to talk about all the kinds of advice he tried to give the women on our team.
Blogger's note: One of the relationship tips he dispensed was how to gauge a potential suitor's worthiness. We should only marry a man if he expresses concern for our spiritual well-being, and to find out if he does, we must ask him, "Do you care about my spiritual well-being?" So readers, don't forget to include that little criteria in your quest for true love.
The city of Jackson does not offer much for its tourists. Save a few museums and the governor's mansion, there wasn't a whole lot to see or do downtown. So instead of hanging out in Jackson on the weekends, we took off for Vicksburg one weekend for a driving tour of a civil war park consisting of monuments dedicated to all the battalions that fought in the war. The 16-mile tour only reminded us of our cemetery back at MSH so we quickly found a short cut out of the park and went exploring elsewhere. We spent the second weekend in New Orleans and stayed at a teammate's house in Slidell. After a raucous night of partying on Bourbon Street on Saturday, we did an independent service project at a local convenant house the next day, washing windows and sanding down railings to prepare for a new coat of paint.
On our way back to Charleston at the end of last week, we made a stop in Atlanta, GA for half a day. I visited the High Folk Art and Photography gallery for a photo exhibit of Aperture at 50: Past Forward. I also took a CNN studio tour at their headquarters which, quite frankly, sucked.
Blogger's note: In the original e-mail, I had written a more detailed description of the CNN tour but after reading it now, I decided that "sucked" would suffice.
Tomorrow, we'll begin our second project at Mepkin Abbey in Moncks Corner, SC, home to Trappist monks. The project is short - only 6 working days. We'll be helping out in their library and botanical garden. I hear the abbey is beautiful and am excited to take a break from digging.
Blogger's note: Mepkin Abbey, as recently as 2007, stirred some controversy when PETA released a video showing the abbey's egg farming operations that involved de-beaking hens and forced molting practices.
And more news! We recently were told about our third project, which is to begin right after Thanksgiving weekend and to continue after our winter break until near the end of February. My team will be heading down to Miami, Florida to help the Hispanic and Creole communities of the city file their taxes. For about two weeks (Dec. 1-12) we will receive training on how exactly to do someone's taxes (good practical skill to learn for the future) and then when we come back after winter break, we'll begin the actual work. We'll be living in a hotel (we're going to be so spoiled!) and my team will be working in pairs in different communities/neighborhoods in the city.
I want to start learning some Spanish, so if any of you have recommendations for specific teach-yourself-Spanish books/CDs please let me know, or if you want to email me some essential Spanish vocab/phrases, feel free to do so.
Blogger's note: I purchased one of those teach-yourself-Spanish book and CD sets only to learn that the community to which I was assigned (Model City, aka Liberty City) was predominantly African American. The only Spanish I've picked up between 2003 and now was when my family took a vacation to Mexico in 2004 and I learned to say, "Por favor, donde esta el bano? Gracias!" ("Please, where is the bathroom? Thank you!")
Stayed tuned for Part 3.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
My Life Circa 2003 - Part 1
It's near the end of August and I have neglected to post on this blog until now in part due to the busy club ultimate season. I'm also very boring and don't have exciting things to report now that I work a desk job. So rather than write new material, I'm resurrecting the past. I will share, in a 4-part series, e-mail updates I sent to friends and family during my AmeriCorps days that chronicled the service projects I worked on from 2003 to 2004 (back when I was bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, and a little more interesting).
Aside from some minor editing, the content is the original.
Sent October 25, 2003:
Hi all!
I just finished my first month here in Charleston. It feels like I've been here for a lot longer than a month but at the same time I'm surprised to see how quickly time has passed. Because what I'm doing is not a typical 9-5pm office job, it feels like I'm on an extended summer break, especially because it's still warm here and I've hit the beach every weekend so far. And with everyone being between the ages of 18 and 24, it feels like college all over again except there's no homework and it's coed, which means I actually interact with males more than once every few months.
My team has worked on several short-term service projects during our month of training. We've dug out water pipes from the ground, built fences for a garden show, sorted donated shoes for Goodwill, tied pink ribbons to mark the course for Race for the Cure (for breast cancer), and worked in a Habitat for Humanity resale store doing everything from reorganizing their bookroom to building shelves and lugging window frames from one end of the warehouse to another.
We've also done some independent service work outside of the program on weekends. So far, my team has directed parking for a rock concert benefiting children with autism and painted rocking chairs for the Ronald McDonald house, which is a charity that provides parents of children who are sick and need long-term treatment at a hospital with nearby housing (a room in the Ronald McDonald house) so they do not need to travel far to be with their children.
We also helped an animal rescue organization called the Keeper of the Wild, which is really run by one woman (aka the Keeper) who cares for injured and sick wild raccoons, prairie dogs, squirrels, foxes, possums, and skunks. She has a 15 year-old squirrel as a pet. Squirrels in the wild generally live up to only 2 or 3 years but if kept in captivity can live up to 18 years. This geriatric squirrel was so old he had lost over 50% of his fur and was completely toothless and wrinkled. (Think Grandpa without his clothes on). JSo- even YOU wouldn't want to keep this little guy as a pet!
While doing yardwork at Keeper of the Wild, we encountered a copperhead snake that slithered into our work area within a few feet of us. It didn't seem like a big deal until I was told that it was poisonous and in pounce mode (whoa!). We notified the Keeper who nonchalantly, while talking on her cellphone, took one of our shovels, flung the snake into an open space away from us, and basically ripped it into pieces. It was mesmerizing to watch. That snake, as vicious as it had seemed to the rest of us, didn't have a chance against the Keeper!
We recently were briefed about two of our future long-term spike projects that will take place between the end of October (next week) and Thanksgiving. For the first project, which will be 3 weeks long, we will be in Jackson, Mississippi working in a psychiatric ward of the Mississippi State Hospital. We were told that this mental hospital is one of the largest in the United States. Our primary project, however, does not entirely involve working with live patients. Instead, we will be working in a graveyard that contains about 4,000 corpses of psychiatric patients dating back to the 1930s. Due to the stigma of mental illness, none of these patients were given a proper burial. Many but not all have only small markers to indicate their approximate location. We'll be working with hospital staff and archaeologists to locate the bodies and help prepare the pouring of the headstones for them. Besides this job, we'll also be doing carpentry work of repairing a chapel on the hospital grounds and spending time with the patients (all senior citizens) at the psychiatric ward. We leave for this project next Monday!
Our second project will be back in Charleston and we'll be working with monks at a local abbey. Our project will involve mostly gardening work and carpentry. We have been invited to join the monks for a silent meal as most of them have taken a vow of silence, which will be interesting.
End of Part 1.
Notes: Back in the stone age of 2003, none of us owned digital cameras. The next time I go home, I'll try to scan some to post (there are some real gems in my photo collection).
Aside from some minor editing, the content is the original.
Sent October 25, 2003:
Hi all!
I just finished my first month here in Charleston. It feels like I've been here for a lot longer than a month but at the same time I'm surprised to see how quickly time has passed. Because what I'm doing is not a typical 9-5pm office job, it feels like I'm on an extended summer break, especially because it's still warm here and I've hit the beach every weekend so far. And with everyone being between the ages of 18 and 24, it feels like college all over again except there's no homework and it's coed, which means I actually interact with males more than once every few months.
My team has worked on several short-term service projects during our month of training. We've dug out water pipes from the ground, built fences for a garden show, sorted donated shoes for Goodwill, tied pink ribbons to mark the course for Race for the Cure (for breast cancer), and worked in a Habitat for Humanity resale store doing everything from reorganizing their bookroom to building shelves and lugging window frames from one end of the warehouse to another.
We've also done some independent service work outside of the program on weekends. So far, my team has directed parking for a rock concert benefiting children with autism and painted rocking chairs for the Ronald McDonald house, which is a charity that provides parents of children who are sick and need long-term treatment at a hospital with nearby housing (a room in the Ronald McDonald house) so they do not need to travel far to be with their children.
We also helped an animal rescue organization called the Keeper of the Wild, which is really run by one woman (aka the Keeper) who cares for injured and sick wild raccoons, prairie dogs, squirrels, foxes, possums, and skunks. She has a 15 year-old squirrel as a pet. Squirrels in the wild generally live up to only 2 or 3 years but if kept in captivity can live up to 18 years. This geriatric squirrel was so old he had lost over 50% of his fur and was completely toothless and wrinkled. (Think Grandpa without his clothes on). JSo- even YOU wouldn't want to keep this little guy as a pet!
While doing yardwork at Keeper of the Wild, we encountered a copperhead snake that slithered into our work area within a few feet of us. It didn't seem like a big deal until I was told that it was poisonous and in pounce mode (whoa!). We notified the Keeper who nonchalantly, while talking on her cellphone, took one of our shovels, flung the snake into an open space away from us, and basically ripped it into pieces. It was mesmerizing to watch. That snake, as vicious as it had seemed to the rest of us, didn't have a chance against the Keeper!
We recently were briefed about two of our future long-term spike projects that will take place between the end of October (next week) and Thanksgiving. For the first project, which will be 3 weeks long, we will be in Jackson, Mississippi working in a psychiatric ward of the Mississippi State Hospital. We were told that this mental hospital is one of the largest in the United States. Our primary project, however, does not entirely involve working with live patients. Instead, we will be working in a graveyard that contains about 4,000 corpses of psychiatric patients dating back to the 1930s. Due to the stigma of mental illness, none of these patients were given a proper burial. Many but not all have only small markers to indicate their approximate location. We'll be working with hospital staff and archaeologists to locate the bodies and help prepare the pouring of the headstones for them. Besides this job, we'll also be doing carpentry work of repairing a chapel on the hospital grounds and spending time with the patients (all senior citizens) at the psychiatric ward. We leave for this project next Monday!
Our second project will be back in Charleston and we'll be working with monks at a local abbey. Our project will involve mostly gardening work and carpentry. We have been invited to join the monks for a silent meal as most of them have taken a vow of silence, which will be interesting.
End of Part 1.
Notes: Back in the stone age of 2003, none of us owned digital cameras. The next time I go home, I'll try to scan some to post (there are some real gems in my photo collection).
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